Posted on 02/09/2002 6:59:22 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
In an astonishing reversal of President Bush's nonchalant attitude towards an array of corruption charges against Bill and Hillary Clinton, the president and his aides are now said to be "quietly pushing" a probe into allegations that Clinton staffers trashed the White House in Jan. 2001.
What's more, they've asked that the newly revved up investigation focus on the East Wing, where former first lady Hillary Clinton had her offices.
The shift could mean the GAO probe will also examine evidence that Mrs. Clinton absconded with furniture and other White House artifacts to decorate her private mansions in New York and Washington.
"White House folks suggested we cast as wide a net as possible," GAO director Bernard Ungar told the New York Daily News Saturday, adding that the Bushies wanted to redirect the probe's previous focus from the Eisenhower office building to Mrs. Clinton official digs.
The request for action on the Clinton vandalism charges prompted complaints from GAO chief David Walker, who told the News, "they want us to do more work than is even reasonable."
The Clinton probe could prove distracting to Walker's focus in recent weeks: prying loose White House records on meetings between Vice President Dick Cheney and Enron officials.
Immediately after reports of White House vandalism, Bush seemed to take no interest in the episode and urged the media to look that other way.
"There might have been a prank or two, maybe somebody put a cartoon on the wall, but that's OK." he told reporters. "It's time now to move forward."
But after Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner complained last June that Clinton workers had been unfairly smeared and demanded the Bushies apologize, White House press spokesman Ari Fleischer said the destruction was more extensive then the president had let on.
A list of damages he released included:
75 phones that had been "tampered with," including 10 where the lines had been cut.
Twenty percent of the desks in the Eisenhower Office complex had been overturned.
Obscene graffiti was discovered by Bush staffers in six offices.
A 20-inch-wide presidential seal had been ripped off a wall.
One hundred computer keyboards had been rendered inoperable by the Clinton vandals.
Pornography was left behind in White House photocopiers.
Trash was spilled throughout the White House counsel's office, along with other assorted random damage.
One estimate put the cost of the destruction as high as $250,000.
Bush administration spokeswoman Claire Buchan said the White House counsel's office had photographs of the vandalism, but did not explain why they were not offered to the GAO when the agency first requested proof in April.
In releasing the list of damages, Fleischer explained, "We tried to be gracious, but the last administration would not take graciousness." Claims that Bush staffers had lied about the destruction had forced him to respond, he said.
After Fleischer's comments, the GAO's Ungar began backtracking on his April report that there was no unusual damage to the White House after Clinton staffers departed.
"Ungar said the GAO found accounts of damage that included telephones disconnected from wall jacks, phones with extension numbers defaced and tables and desks that were overturned," reported Newsday, in a follow up story on Fleischer's list.
It's not clear whether the White House's newly aggressive attitude will translate into action in the office of the U.S. Attorney for New York's Southern District, which has been accused of footdragging in its probe into the Clinton Pardongate scandal.
I dunno-sometimes I think hillary's senate run was as much for keeping a grip on those who could betray her as it was for a stepping stone to the presidency. Who knows?
For sure-Dick Morris is doing his level best to get some of it out...but his disgrace gets in the way of his credibility. I am one, tho, who holds hope that once the first courageous 'insider' steps out, more will follow. In the end, I hope many grow tired of having to live with themselves and what they did to support the vile clintons.
See my post #63 just for grins. . .
I think it is a message to the Demoncrates that they should perhaps call off the attacks they are trying to deliver via the GAO, the Enron hearings etc!
It should be on some of the lists:
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Don't you have a lot of paper work to catch up on over there at the GAO?
I think you are absolutely right. GW is not one to do something like this lightly, or for vanity. No "wag the dog" necessary, since he is an honest man. HOWEVER, to those who want to play hard ball, he CAN play with the best of them. He is letting the dims know that it is time to stop the partisan posturing and move on with the work of the country.
I would add the phrase "an iron fist in a velvet glove" to your expert analysis.
Do you who are critical of Bush's actions really think it is a feather is Bush's bonnet to give those people a pass on their many crimes. Yeah, perhaps in light of their many other crimes the vandalism of the White House and theft of White House property may appear petty, but try looking at it another way. What would happen to any of the rest of us who went and tried to take even the smallest of "souveniers" from the White House. I mean, after all, we DID pay for it.
This is exactly how I read this. Bush and the Repubs are ADULTS, the Clintoons and their lackeys (and Begala, and Car-VILE) are adolescent punks.
Pubs have learned, since Nixon, Reagan and Bush SR that they can't trust the Dems. Dubya gave them a chance, their continued antics (like Tiny Tom stopping the stimulus) have made him show them that he's not gonna roll over weeping like Chester NotaLott.
Pass the rope, boys, there's some cows that need branding!
TRASH the previous administration???? How is holding people responsible for lawbreaking equivalent to trashing them? Do you consider our legal system's proceedings as the "trashing" of suspected law breakers?
The clinton's have no 'magic', they're as vulnerable as any ambitious, dangerous, violence prone politicians ever were.
There's a tendency for their apologists, or for the 'sour grapes' crowd to regard them as some sort of 'untouchables', but I'd give them no better than a coin toss's chance of staying ahead of trouble for very much longer.
The only way for them to stay ahead of the law indefinitely would be for HILLARY! to get into the White House, and I don't think she'll be able to pull that off.
It's finally happening. Toldja it would!
Love,
Null
An ocean liner has a lot of momentum. It takes constant pressure and time to reverse the direction.
Sounds like good material for a sermon.
However, the really good news is that krinton and wifey! just must get exposed for the grifters and traitors that they are. And in that way, this whole episode in governmental and corporate American corruption would have some small redeeming aspect.
Well, actually I think that there is much more associated with clintoon to Enron than to the current administration.
The DIMocRATS are beating the Enron drum to divert attention from the Global Crossing insider trading caper involving Terry McAuliffe. He made a PROFIT of $18 MILLION on a $100,000 investment in a 2 year period. Not bad, huh??
Those are my thoughts, as well. I look forward to that little ditty by McAuliffe develop.......
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